Biology Reference
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tion. Rather, it manifests an appreciation of slow change and the need to persist in
supporting moves forward. To conclude, against the tentative vegan's claim that veget-
arians participate in an exploitative practice when they eat products that are derived
from free-roaming animals, vegetarians say first that nothing in the consumption
makes the vegan description of it more reasonable than the vegetarian one. Second,
political considerations make the vegetarian description of selective-consumption-as-
promoting-progress preferable to the overly purist stance of the vegan.
I asked how to formulate the distinction between legitimate as opposed to illegitim-
ate cooperation with progressive yet still exploitative practices. The first condition was
the magnitude of the step taken by the progressive institution, that is, whether it
manifests a substantial or a trivial moral recognition. The second was the strategic be-
nefits of cooperation versus noncooperation assessed in relation to the overall political
objective. A third condition concerns the extremity of the loss experienced by the ex-
ploited entity as part of obtaining a particular product from it. If eggs had to be
ripped out of the hen's body through a painful procedure, then to consume eggs
would amount to being implicated in immoral cooperation. By eating such eggs, one
would in effect be commissioning someone else to do the painful harvesting. Such is
the case with eating flesh; not with milk or eggs. The animals do not appear to be
harmed. Cooperating as a consumer with the particular “service” provided by the an-
imal is thus categorically different from cooperating with services that do involve loss
or pain.
True, farm-animal husbandry involves painful procedures (debeaking in poultry and
horn removal in cows). Hens are debeaked to reduce cannibalism. Sometimes it is
said that the crowded conditions cause cannibalism, 12 but a breeder of free-roaming
hens with whom I talked told me that cannibalism does not appear to depend on
space, as his free-roaming hens can still peck each other to death. He believes that
debeaking positively benefits the hens. Reforming farm-animal husbandry in the veget-
arian utopia will look carefully into these practices, seeking alternative methods of
achieving their goals with less suffering. As far as present conditions are concerned,
we can say this: to the extent that debeaking or horn removal prevents injury to oth-
er farm animals, such actions become as legitimate as spaying and neutering pets: a
price such animals pay for coexistence with humans. We are, again, “calling the
shots,” and this will repel those who read into these animals notions like autonomy.
But calling the shots here seems beneficial to these animals.
OBLIGATIONS IN PRACTICE
Vegetarians are required to look for less exploitative products. How tough is this
requirement? Are vegetarians obligated to go to any length or cost to obtain products
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